Shamier Little hurdles to silver medal performance at World Championships

Published by Texas A&M SID on August 26, 2015

BEIJING, China – Texas A&M's Shamier Little claimed a silver medal in the final of the 400 hurdles at the IAAF World Championships, producing a time of 53.94 seconds from lane two inside the Bird's Nest stadium on Wednesday.
 
"It's exciting, finishing with a medal is a big deal to me," said Little, the youngest hurdler among the finalists. "What I've accomplished so far in just coming here and barely getting into the final.
 
"I set my race up, that was a big part of it. Bringing it home was another big part of it. I made sure I stayed tough. That's what I did and that's what made a difference between today and the semifinals."
 
The 20-year-old Chicago native, who will be an A&M junior this upcoming season, continues to add to an impressive collection of medals amid her first two seasons as an Aggie. In 2014 Little won NCAA, US Junior and World Junior championships. This year she set a world-leading time of 54.68 in winning the SEC, improved her world-leading time to 53.74 to defend her NCAA title, claimed the USATF championship (53.83) and won the Pan Am Games (55.50).
 
Little becomes the first female to medal at the World Junior Championships and then medal the following year at the World Championships. Others who have accomplished that feat include Grenada's Kirani James in the 400 (2010 WJr gold, 2011 WCh gold), Trinidad & Tobago's Darrel Brown in the 100 (2002 WJr gold, 2003 WCh silver) and Llewellyn Herbert of South Africa in the 400 hurdles (1996 WJr silver, 1997 WCh silver).